Baklava
| region = Middle East (notably Levant), South Caucasus, Southeast Europe, Maghreb, and Central Asia | course = Dessert | served = Cold, room temperature or re-warmed | main_ingredient = Filo dough, nuts, sweetening | variations = Multiple | calories = | other = }} Baklava ( ; , , or ; ) is a rich, sweet dessert pastry made of layers of filo filled with chopped nuts and sweetened and held together with syrup or honey. It is characteristic of the cuisines of the Levant and the broader Middle East, along with Greece, the South Caucasus, Balkans, Maghreb, and Central Asia. Etymology The word baklava is first attested in English in 1650,Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition a borrowing from Ottoman Turkish }} . The name baklava is used in many languages with minor phonetic and spelling variations. Historian Paul D. Buell argues that the word "baklava" may come from the Mongolian root 'to tie, wrap up, pile up' composed with the Turkic verbal ending ''-v''; baγla- itself in Mongolian is a Turkic loanword. Armenian linguist Sevan Nişanyan considers its oldest known forms (pre-1500) to be baklağı and baklağu, and labels it as being of Proto-Turkic origin,Nişanyan, Sevan (2009) (in Turkish). Sözlerin Soyağacı - Çağdaş Türkçenin Etimolojik Sözlüğü Family Tree - An Etymological Dictionary of Contemporary Turkish. İstanbul. http://nisanyansozluk.com/?k=baklava whilst Armenian cookbook writer der Haroutunian affirms that Baklava is derived from 'Bahki-Halva', the Armenian term for 'Lenten Sweet'der Haroutunian,Arto (1983), p.188,'Vegetarian Dishes from the Middle East'. Another form of the word is also recorded in Persian, ( ). Though the suffix ''-vā'' might suggest a Persian origin,Marks, Gil, Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, John Wiley and Sons, 2010, , ; page 38. the baqla-'' part does not appear to be Persian and remains of unknown origin."a derivation from ''balg, a common dialect form of barg "leaf", or from Ar. baql "herb" is unlikely", W. Eilers, Encyclopædia Iranica, s.v. 'bāqlavā' The Arabic name likely originates from Turkish, though a folk etymology, unsupported by Wehr's dictionary, connects it to Arabic 'bean'. History Although the history of baklava is not well documented, its current form was probably developed in the imperial kitchens of the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul.Perry 1994, 87 The Sultan presented trays of baklava to the Janissaries every 15th of the month of Ramadan in a ceremonial procession called the . There are three proposals for the pre-Ottoman roots of baklava: the Roman placenta cake, as developed through Byzantine cuisine, [ Patrick Faas (2003). Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 185f.] the Central Asian Turkic tradition of layered breads,Perry, Charles. "The Taste for Layered Bread among the Nomadic Turks and the Central Asian Origins of Baklava", in A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (ed. Sami Zubaida, Richard Tapper), 1994. , page 87 or the Persian lauzinaq. |location= |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |page=151 |isbn=978-0470391303 |access-date= }} The oldest (2nd century BCE) recipe that resembles a similar dessert is the honey covered baked layered-dough dessert of Roman times, which Patrick Faas identifies as the origin of baklava: "The Greeks and the Turks still argue over which dishes were originally Greek and which Turkish. Baklava, for example, is claimed by both countries. Greek and Turkish cuisine both built upon the cookery of the Byzantine Empire, which was a continuation of the cooking of the Roman Empire. Roman cuisine had borrowed a great deal from the ancient Greeks, but (and hence baklava) had a Latin, not a Greek, origin—please note that the conservative, anti-Greek Cato left us this recipe." as follows: place a single row of τρακτὸς, τρακτόν "dough drawn out or rolled for pastry," Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, on Perseus along the whole length of the base dough. This is then covered with the mixture and honey from the mortar. Place another row of on top and go on doing so until all the cheese and honey have been used up. Finish with a layer of . ... place the placenta in the oven and put a preheated lid on top of it ... When ready, honey is poured over the placenta.|author=Cato the Elder|source=De Agri Cultura 160 BC}} Andrew Dalby identifies this, and surrounding dessert recipes in Cato, as coming from a "Greek tradition" and cites Antiphanes (fl. 3rd century BC) as quoted by Athenaeus. Several sources state that this Roman dessert continued to evolve during the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire into modern baklava.John Ash, A Byzantine Journey, books |plainurl=yes |id=eQCKEk1GXlYC |page=223 }} page 223 In antiquity the Greek word ( ) was also used for Latin ,placenta, Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, on Perseus and the American scholar Speros Vryonis describes one type of plakous, koptoplakous (Byzantine Greek: κοπτοπλακοῦς), as a "Byzantine favorite" and "the same as the Turkish baklava",Speros Vryonis The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor, 1971, p. 482 as do other writers.books |plainurl=yes |id=jYa3J6xrjt4C |page=184 }} Rena Salaman, "Food in Motion the Migration of Foodstuffs and Cookery Techniques" from the Oxford Symposium on Food Cookery, Vol. 2, p. 184 Indeed, the Roman word placenta ( ) is used today on the island of Lesbos in Greece to describe a baklava-type dessert of layered pastry leaves containing crushed nuts that is baked and then covered in honey.ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΤΙΚΟ ΙΔΡΥΜΑ ΟΜΙΛΟΥ ΠΕΙΡΑΙΩΣ, ΜΑΓΕΙΡΕΥΟΝΤΑΣ ΜΕ ΛΑΔΙ ΚΑΙ ΑΛΛΑ ΣΤΗΝ ΑΓΙΑ ΠΑΡΑΣΚΕΥΗ ΛΕΣΒΟΥ Muhammad bin Hasan al-Baghdadi was a compiler from the Abbasid period who described lauzinaq, a dessert said by some to have been similar to baklava, though others say it was not like baklava.Perry, Charles. "What to Order in Ninth Century Baghdad," in Rodinson, Maxime, and Arthur John Arberry. "Medieval Arab Cookery." (2001). p. 222 "As for lauzinaj, it was not much like baklava." Lauzinaq, which derives from the Aramaic word for almond, refers to small pieces of almond paste wrapped in very thin pastry ("as thin as grasshoppers' wings") and drenched in syrup.Perry, Charles. "What to Order in Ninth Century Baghdad," in Rodinson, Maxime, and Arthur John Arberry. "Medieval Arab Cookery." (2001). p. 223 Al-Baghdadi's cookbook, , was written in 1226 (in today's Iraq) and was based on a collection of 9th century Persian-inspired recipes. According to Gil Marks, Middle Eastern pastry makers developed the process of layering the ingredients; he asserts that "some scholars said they were influenced by Mongols or Turks". The only original manuscript of al-Baghdadi's book survives at the Library in Istanbul (Turkey) and according to Charles Perry, "for centuries, it had been the favorite cookbook of the Turks," though Perry also notes that the manuscript has no recipe for baklava. A further 260 recipes had been added to the original by Turkish compilers at an unknown date retitling it as , and two of its known three copies can be found now at the Topkapı Palace Library in Istanbul. Eventually, Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Shirwani, the physician of the Ottoman Sultan Murad II prepared a Turkish translation of the book, adding around 70 contemporary recipes. Another recipe for a similar dessert is güllaç, a dessert found in the Turkish cuisine and considered by some as the origin of baklava. It consists of layers of filo dough that are put one by one in warmed up milk with sugar. It is served with walnut and fresh pomegranate and generally eaten during Ramadan. The first known documentation of is attested in a food and health manual, written in 1330 that documents Mongol foods called Yinshan Zhengyao (飮膳正要, Important Principles of Food and Drink), written by Hu Sihui, an ethnic Mongol court dietitian of the Yuan dynasty.Paul D. Buell, "Mongol Empire and Turkicization: The Evidence of Food and Foodways", p. 200''ff'', in Amitai-Preiss, 1999. Uzbek cuisine has , or or in Tatar , which are sweet and salty savories ( ) prepared with 10–12 layers of dough.Akın and Lambraki, Turkish and Greek Cuisine / p. 248-249, There are also some similarities between baklava and the Ancient Greek desserts ( ),γάστρις, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, on Perseus ( ), and ( ) found in book XIV of the .κοπτός, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, on Perseus'' '' 14:647, discussed by Charles Perry, "The Taste for Layered Bread among the Nomadic Turks and the Central Asian Origins of Baklava", in A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (ed. Sami Zubaida, Richard Tapper), 1994. . p. 88. However, the recipe there is for a filling of nuts and honey, with a top and bottom layer of honey and ground sesame similar to modern or , and no dough, certainly not a flaky dough.Charles Perry, "The Taste for Layered Bread among the Nomadic Turks and the Central Asian Origins of Baklava", in A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (ed. Sami Zubaida, Richard Tapper), 1994. . Preparation are used for preparing baklava.]] Baklava is normally prepared in large pans. Many layers of filo dough, separated with melted butter and vegetable oil, are laid in the pan. A layer of chopped nuts—typically walnuts or pistachios, but hazelnuts are also sometimes used—is placed on top, then more layers of filo. Most recipes have multiple layers of filo and nuts, though some have only top and bottom pastry. Before baking (30 minutes), the dough is cut into regular pieces, often parallelograms (lozenge-shaped), triangles, diamonds or rectangles. After baking, a syrup, which may include honey, rosewater, or orange flower water is poured over the cooked baklava and allowed to soak in. Baklava is usually served at room temperature, often garnished with ground nuts. Regional variations ]] In Turkey, baklava is traditionally made by filling between the layers of dough with pistachios, walnuts or almonds (in some parts of the Aegean Region). In the Black Sea Region hazelnuts are commonly used as a filling for baklava. Hazelnuts are also used as a filling for the Turkish dessert Sütlü Nuriye, a lighter version of the dessert which substitutes milk for the simple syrup used in traditional baklava recipes. Şöbiyet is a variation that includes fresh cream in the filling, in addition to the traditional nuts. The city of Gaziantep in southeast Turkey is famous for its pistachio baklava. The dessert was introduced to Gaziantep in 1871 by Çelebi Güllü, who had learned the recipe from a chef in Damascus. In 2008, the Turkish patent office registered a geographical indication for Antep Baklava, and in 2013, or was registered as a Protected Geographical Indication by the European Commission. In many parts of Turkey, baklava is often topped with or ice cream. Armenian is spiced with cinnamon and cloves.The flower of paradise and other Armenian tales by Bonnie C. Marshall, Virginia A. Tashjian, Libraries Unlimited, 2007, p. 179, Greek-style baklava is supposed to be made with 33 dough layers, referring to the years of Christ's life.Theodore Kyriakou and Charles Campion, The Real Greek at Home, London 2004 In Azerbaijani cuisine , made with walnuts or almonds, is usually cut in a rhombus shape and is traditionally served during the spring holiday of . In the cuisine of Bosnia Ruzice is the name of the regional variant of baklava. In Crimean Tatar cuisine, the is their variant of baklava. In Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian, Iraqi, Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian cuisines, baklava prepared from phyllo dough sheets, butter, walnuts and sugar syrup is cut into lozenge-shaped pieces. In the Maghreb, mainly Libyan, Tunisian, Algerian and Moroccan cuisines, the pastry was brought (along many others) by the Ottomans, and is prepared differently depending on the regions and cities. In Iranian cuisine, a drier version of baklava is cooked and presented in smaller diamond-shaped cuts flavored with rose water. The cities of Yazd and Qazvin are famous for their baklava, which is widely distributed in Iran.N. Ramazani, "Bāqlavā", Encyclopaedia iranica, Volume 3, Issues 5–8, page 729. Persian baklava uses a combination of chopped almonds and pistachios spiced with cardamom and a rose water-scented syrup and is lighter than other Middle Eastern versions.Batmanglij, Najmieh, A Taste of Persia: An Introduction to Persian Cooking, I.B.Tauris, 2007, , 9781845114374; page 156.Food and Booze: A Tin House Literary Feast, Michelle Wildgen, Nicole J. Georges, Tin House Books, 2007, , ; page 200. Notes References * Reuven Amitai-Preiss and David O. Morgan, eds., The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy Brill, 1999. . * Paul D. Buell, "Mongol Empire and Turkicization: The Evidence of Food and Foodways", p. 200''ff'', in Amitai-Preiss, 1999. * Christian, David. Review of Amitai-Preiss, 1999, in Journal of World History 12:2:476 (2001). * Perry, Charles. "The Taste for Layered Bread among the Nomadic Turks and the Central Asian Origins of Baklava", in A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (ed. Sami Zubaida, Richard Tapper), 1994. . * Roden Claudia, "A New Book of Middle Eastern Food" * Vryonis, Speros, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor, 1971. Quoted in Perry (1994). * Wasti, Syed Tanvir, "The Ottoman Ceremony of the Royal Purse", Middle Eastern Studies 41:2:193–200 (March 2005) Category:Desserts Category:Nut dishes Category:Pastries Category:Algerian cuisine Category:Arab cuisine Category:Armenian cuisine Category:Assyrian cuisine Category:Azerbaijani cuisine Category:Balkan cuisine Category:Greek cuisine Category:Iranian cuisine Category:Iraqi cuisine Category:Israeli cuisine Category:Jordanian cuisine Category:Kurdish cuisine Category:Lebanese cuisine Category:Levantine cuisine Category:Moroccan cuisine Category:Middle Eastern cuisine Category:Ottoman cuisine Category:Palestinian cuisine Category:Syrian cuisine Category:Tunisian cuisine Category:Turkish cuisine Category:Turkish words and phrases Category:Egyptian cuisine